This message is dedicated to poor people and people of justice all over the world. You can print it, forward and post it to other mailing lists/discussion forums as long as its attribution is given to the author and the wording is not altered in any way. Feel free to pass it around to all of your friends. Subject: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people. by Ju-chang He Bourgeois economists disguise economic reality and appear to do so deliberately. They use the GDP, (Gross Domestic Product), to measure the whole economic status of a country and this results in the government paying no attention to the living standards of poor people. So poverty is perpetuated. Nowadays, most countries use the GDP to judge their economic growth and, according to this GDP, calculate their economic growth rate. When there appears a large GDP and a high economic growth rate, say 9% per year, economists will say that the economy is great and the financial officers will be proud, but still the economy is bad. It is bad because the living standards of the poor haven't been raised. There are still a lot of people suffering from cold and hunger. They can't afford to send their children to school, and, as a result, too many children are deprived of education. If the economists say things are bad, the government has got to make an effort to raise the living standards of poor people. If the economists say that the economy is great, there seems no need for the government to raise the living standards of poor people. When there is a small GDP and a negative economic growth rate of, say, -2% a year, the economists will say that the economy is bad and the financial officers will be ashamed of it. Then the government has got to make every effort to raise GDP, but the living standards of the poor are unaffected. Therefore, it appears that GDP is for the rich to hoodwink the poor people to keep them poor. The GDP, as a measure of the whole economic situation for a country, is unscientific, because it does not tell the whole story; and it is unfair for poor people, because it excludes them from prosperity. What Should We Do to Raise the Living Standards of the Poor? First, I'd like to prove that the GDP, as a measure of a country's total economy, is unscientific and unfair for poor. Then, I'll show that instead of the GDP, we could use the living standards of the people to measure the whole economic situation of a country. In order to use the living standards of the people instead of GDP to measure the whole economic situation of a country, I'd like to offer a criterion of how to measure the living standards of the people: People's living standard can be divided into four grades. The first grade is necessary consumption of education, clothing, food, housing and transportation. The second grade is ordinary consumption, which means buying some more clothes and purchasing TV sets and washers, etc. The third grade is extravagant consumption, which means going to hotels, restaurants and dancing-halls and taking cars, etc. The fourth grade is over-extravagant consumption. Next, we can carry on state regulations and give guidance of market. Go to the following site for an explanation: <http://sites.netscape.net/juchang/marketaa.html#chart>. In this way, the market will produce enough consumer goods of the first and second grade. According to today's productivity, it is not difficult to produce enough consumer goods of the first and second grade. The government should make laws to fix a minimum wage level in accordance with the economic situation of the country and make it clear that the wages of all the workers oughtn't to be lower than this level. The government should distribute relief fund among the unemployed and disabled. Thus, the living standards of poor people will undoubtedly be raised. If the government refuses to raise the living standards of the poor, then their loyalties become clear. This visibility serves to motivate the government to raise living standards of poor people as a matter of first importance. So, we should use the living standards of poor people and the sufficiency of the first and second grade consumer goods as the criterion to judge the economic situation of a country and the achievements of its government. Only when poverty is eliminated, may we say that the social economy is developed. Only when the living standards of the low-income people are improved, will we be able to take a just and accurate measurement of the economic growth of a country. So, the economic growth of a certain country can't be measured by GDP, which is really unscientific and unfair for poor people. Bourgeois economists may argue: **GDP is scientific and fair. Because GDP was NOT designed to measure distribution, it was designed to measure volume - so the criticism of unfairness does not apply. **GDP measure just the volume and production of goods sold, not the living standards of poor people. **GDP does not measure income distribution. My reply: The kernel of this issue is how economists use the GDP. Do they present it as a measure of the overall performance of the economy, or as merely the volume and production of goods sold. It is very clear that economists use the GDP to represent the whole economic situation, not just the volume and production of goods sold. This misrepresentation is the injustice. When there is a large GDP and a high economic growth rate, they will say that the economy is great and the financial officers will be proud of it, although the living conditions of poor can be very bad and need improving. The economists don't pay any attention to the living conditions of poor people. So there is no need for the government to raise the living standards of poor people. Therefore, we say that GDP, as a measure of the whole economic situation, is unscientific and unfair for poor people, and the GDP is merely a tool to keep the poor people poor. Sincerely, Ju-chang He E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SHENZHEN, P.R. CHINA Welcome to My Homepage <http://sites.netscape.net/juchang/homepage.html>